Towson, the Colonial Athletic Association’s runner-up during the regular season, built a 15-point second half lead and held off a frantic ETSU rally late in the game to take an 83-77 win over the Buccaneers in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

With the win, Towson improves to 25-10 on the year and advances to the CIT quarterfinals, while ETSU finishes the season at 19-16 overall. The Buccaneers wrapped up a year which saw them improve drastically after posting a 10-21 record in 2012-13.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our guys,” said ETSU head coach Murry Bartow, whose team started the season at 0-4. “It’s a tough loss, but Towson is a really good team. They are big and athletic, but our team just kept fighting. That’s something they did all season long. I think when we were sitting there at 0-4 to start the season not many people would have thought we could win 19 games, but our guys kept believing and had a really good season.”

The difference on this night was the play of Towson’s senior guard Four McGlynn. After hitting a 55-foot, buzzer-beater to defeat USC Upstate two nights ago in the first round, McGlynn went 6-of-7 from 3-point range against the Buccaneers and scored a game-high and season-high 23 points in the winning effort.

McGlynn’s play helped the Tigers shoot an impressive 51 percent from the floor and an even more eye-popping 53 percent from 3-point range. Towson also played well defensively, collecting 10 blocks in the contest, out-rebounding the Bucs 42-37, and holding ETSU to just 39 percent shooting from the floor.

The first half featured frenetic play by both teams, and a pair of offensive runs highlighted the action. ETSU opened the scoring with a 15-4 outburst and ultimately led by as many as 12 at 18-6 with less than 15 minutes left on the clock. However, Towson answered at that point by outscoring the Bucs 24-7 over the next eight minutes to take a 30-25 advantage and ultimately lead 40-34 at the break.

In the second half, the Tigers built their advantage to as many as 15 points at 74-59 before the Bucs rallied to make it 79-75 with less than a minute left in the game. That would be as close as ETSU would get.

For more information on ETSU basketball throughout the offseason, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s hoops link.